The Hybrid Future

Diversity & Inclusion

The Hybrid Future

Whether you’ve loved working from home for the past eighteen months or found it miserable, there’s no denying that our working patterns have changed for good. As businesses realise the money that can be saved on office space, and employees realise how much they enjoy not doing a daily commute, so the switch to a hybrid style of work will become inevitable. And while being able to pick and choose where you work from might seem like the best of both worlds, there’s a real danger that if companies don’t get it right women will be hit the hardest. So how can we take control of our careers and ensure we get the work-life balance we want without having to sacrifice either promotions or payrises?

In my book, WFH: How to build a career you love when you’re not in the office, I talk about the importance of taking ownership of your career and why this is even more necessary if you (or your boss) aren’t in the office full time. Having a workforce that is split over locations and which spends less time together can mean individuals are overlooked. It’s easier for managers to feel like they know what their teams are doing when they’re all in the same room and so they can start to favour anyone who’s literally in their line of sight. And of course while we might be moving into a new world of work, all the same myths remain: that a woman who works from home does so because she’s no longer interested in her career or that requesting specific working hours means that you won’t be able to respond to a client’s needs.

To get around these myths women have to be prepared to be louder and prouder about their working lives than ever before. For a start, if you’re spending less time in your boss’s presence than before it means that you have to be clearer with them about what you’ve achieved and what you want. For most of us the idea of having to repeatedly tell our boss what we’ve achieved feels soul-destroying but look at it like this, it’s there job to know what you’re up to. Sending them a weekly email highlighting a few of the key things you’ve achieved that week is just keeping them informed – and creating a paper trail of your brilliance when it comes to review time.

Unfortunately, women also have to be doubly clear about what they want for their careers. Sadly the myth that working flexibly also means no longer being ambitious for your career, still exists. To counteract this, you need to make sure your boss (and their boss) knows what you want for your career. Make a point of bringing up your future ambitions in your 1-2-1s and keep repeating them until your boss can recite it off by heart. Quite often we assume our boss knows what we want but the reality is that either they haven’t given it any thought or they think you want their job. Being upfront about your ambition is always important but even more so if you’re going to be working from home on a regular basis.

Of course, this level of self-promotion would be less necessary if we could rely on businesses to manage their hybrid-working policies properly. Any business thinking it wants to move to a hybrid world should also provide training for managers that addresses the differences of remote management. It should also have worked out how it will track promotions and payrises against time spent in the office. If this isn’t monitored and measured you can be sure that bias will creep in and those whose actions mimic the boss will be the ones getting rewarded.

If we all work together to get it right, however, this could be a chance to revolutionise work and really make it better for all of us. Whether you want some flexibility in your working life because you have kids, don’t fancy a long commute anymore or just appreciate having a bit of quiet time to get work done, businesses that are going to thrive in the coming years should be able to accommodate that. Now it’s just a case of waiting to see if they can. ■

Harriet Minter

Journalist, Broadcaster and #WomenInLeadership advocate